GLEP!

Great Lakes Education Program

Our day was chock full of wonderful experiences.  From the moment we boarded our super cool bus, kids were hooked.  Our adventure began on land, where kids learned about marshlands and investigated Lake Erie marshland critters.  What did they find!?  predaceous diving beetle larvae

scud

water flea

water boatman

dragonfly nymph

mayfly larvae

damselfly nymph

They learned how to place a specimen on a slide and using the microscope, figured out what they were looking at. 

Kids learned about marshlands and the plants and animals that live within the marsh.  Mink, muskrats, snakes, turtles, cattails, grasses, and much more.

Why Are Wetlands Important?

Because they occur where the dry land meets the water, wetlands play a critical role in the management of our water based resources.

Acre for acre, wetlands produce more wildlife and plants than any other Michigan habitat type. Wetland species also comprise a critically important segment of these species. For example, Michigan boasts about 2300 native plant species; 50 percent of these are wetland species and over 25 percent of the wetland species are threatened or endangered. More than 40 percent of the 575 vertebrate (with a backbone) wildlife species in Michigan live in or utilize wetlands. This includes 10 to 15 of the 66 mammals, 180 of the 370 birds, 22 of the 28 reptiles, and all of the 23 amphibians.

Here are a few other things that wetlands do:

• reduce flooding by absorbing runoff from rain and melting snow and slowly releasing excess water into rivers and lakes - a one acre swamp when flooded to a depth of one foot contains 330,000 gallons of water
   
• filter pollutants from surface runoff, trapping fertilizers, pesticides, sediments, and other contaminants and helping to break some of them down into less harmful substances, improving water clarity and quality
   
• help recharge groundwater supplies when connected to underground aquifers
   
• contribute to natural nutrient and water cycles, and produce vital atmospheric gases, including oxygen
   
• provide commercial or recreational value to our human economy, by producing plants, game birds (ducks, geese) and fur bearing mammals - many fish are directly connected to wetlands, requiring shallow water areas for breeding, feeding and escaping from predators
   
• when wetlands occur adjacent to the Great Lakes, inland lakes or streams, they serve as nutrient traps that then enrich the larger body of water of which they are part

What Are the Threats to Wetlands?

The extent of wetland habitat was once controlled by natural processes. Marshes along the Great Lakes and drowned river mouth lakes vary in size, depending on rainfall trends and Great Lakes water levels. The natural filling of old glacial lakes with plant remains and sediment will create bog habitat. Eventually through continued succession, open water may be eliminated, replaced with a continuous sphagnum bog or a wet meadow. Floodplain swamps may shrink or increase with the normal changes in a river's channel over time. Over the long term, such natural change is inevitable. Wetland areas in Michigan have been growing, shrinking and re forming according to natural cycles since the last Ice Age and before, and these cycles continue today.

The last century has seen a greatly increased rate of wetland loss due to filling and drainage by man. Prior to World War 11, drainage to expand agricultural lands accounted for most of this loss. Recently, much wetland destruction has been caused by commercial, industrial, and residential expansion. The estimated 11 million acres of Michigan wetlands existing in pre settlement times has now been reduced to less than 3 million acres. Recent legislation has slowed the loss rate somewhat but threats to these habitats, particularly the smaller wetlands, continue in many areas. 

Information from Michigan Department of Natural Resources  (http://www.michigan.gov/dnr)

The Clinton

Our boat!  What an adventure.  There are four stations on the boat and after the kids have been outfitted with a life jacket, they go to their first station. 

Station 1 (bow): Marlinspike (marine knot tying)

Sailors use knots to make their jobs easier and safer.  Kids practiced a variety of knots while on the boat.

Station 2 (Front table):  “Beat the Teacher” Game – Marine Debris

Marine debris, is human-created waste.  Yuck.  Protect our lakes!  How long does it take to degrade or decompose?

Paper Towel: 2-4 weeks

Cotton Rope: 1-5 months

Apple Core: 2 months

Plywood: 1-3 years

Plastic Grocery Bags: 1-20 years

Foamed Plastic Cup: 50 years

Tin Can: 50 years

Aluminum Can: 200 years

Disposable Diaper: 450 years!!!

Station 3 (rear table): Navigation (maps!)

What way does water flow through the Great Lakes?

Water flows downhill from Lake Superior into Michigan/Huron, then Erie, next through Ontario and eventually into the Atlantic Ocean.  How long does this process take!?  (200 years!)

What are the blue markings between open water and dry land, mostly on the Canadian side of the lake?

Wetlands

Why aren’t there many wetlands on the U.S. side?

Coastal development

What do the black numbers on the water represent?

Water depth

What do the purple and green teardrop shaped objects represent?

Navigation buoys

Station 4 (stern): Plankton

Plankton is AWESOME!  Plankton forms the base of the aquatic food web.  Zooplankton is animal plankton.  Zooplankton can swim on its own, but is largely carried from place to place by currents. 

Phytoplankton is plant plankton.  Phytoplankton is green because of the chlorophyll it contains, and like other green plants, it makes oxygen.  Most of the oxygen we breathe comes from phytoplankton in the oceans!

Exploring the BOTTOM Habitat

The bottom dredge takes a bite out of the bottom, and brings it up to the boat in order for kids to examine it. 

The underwater camera allows kids to see what is beneath the schoolship.  What did you see!?

Water Clarity

We measure water clarity using a Secchi Disk.  Putting the disk into the water you can see through the water to measure the clarity, depending on how deep you can lower the disk before you are unable to see it. 

  

pH

pH is a measure of the power of hydrogen ions in the water.  It is represented by a small “p” and a capital “H”, as H is the symbol for hydrogen.  Most groups found the water to be around 7.5.